Untitled
1970 · Gelatin silver print
7 11/16 × 11 13/16" (19.5 × 30 cm)
Museum of Modern Art
WATTS INDEXThe canonical database of visual culture
Ernest Cole
Artist
WA-00031064
PhotographyPhotography
Representation
None documented
0
Institutional Exhibitions
54
Works in Collection
97
Assets Indexed
0
Authority-backed Facts
0
Publications Referenced
80%
Profile Completeness
Cultural Positioning
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No influence edges encoded yet.
Authority Records (2)
Source Registry (1)
- MoMA bulk 2026-05-04Tier 1 · Institutional92%
About
Why this artist matters now
Ernest Cole was a South African photographer who documented the realities of apartheid through unflinching black and white portraiture and street photography. Working primarily in the 1960s, he captured the lived experience of Black South Africans under systematic racial segregation, creating a visual archive of resistance and resilience. Cole's work is marked by its formal precision and emotional directness, refusing both sentimentality and abstraction in favor of documentary clarity. He left South Africa in 1966 and continued his practice in exile until his death in 1990.
Source: Moma Bulk 2026 05 04 · Trust score: 92% · Updated 27d ago
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Movement
Photography
Medium
Photography
Related Artists
12 in graph
Institutional
Museum Collections
Canonical record
Artworks (54)
View all 54 artworks →
Artwork sources (3)
54 published of 95 catalogued · 80 with image
- MoMA41 publishedof 82 catalogued68 img
- Art Institute Chicago12 published12 img
- The Met1 published
Record
Images
Relationships
3Movements1
Collections2
Institutional
Representation & Collections
In collection
Art Institute of Chicago
In collection
Museum of Modern Art
New York, US
Record
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